It used to be that fine plant-forward cuisine started with a classic culinary education.

Now you can get it all at the Institute of Culinary Education’s Natural Gourmet Center, coming to the Los Angeles campus in Pasadena on April 30 with a Health-Supportive Culinary Arts program for aspiring chefs. Healthy cooking and baking recreational classes, including multi-day immersion courses and two-week certificate programs, are also being offered.

In the professional program, future chefs learn about creating plant-forward cuisine like this seared tempeh with black rice, coconut curry sauce and pineapple and red onion relish. (Courtesy of the Institute of Culinary Education)The 7- to 13-month diploma program teaches core competencies like knife skills to cooking techniques, including how to roast, blanch and sautee. But it relies only on whole, local, seasonal and organic ingredients as the basis for a diet that maintains health and promotes healing.

Learning what food does in the body and how it makes you feel are generally not discussed in a traditional culinary program, said Elliott Prag, the program’s lead chef instructor.

“We have a lot of classes that you’re not going to see in a classic culinary school,” added Prag. “You might get a little nutrition in a traditional culinary program depending on its comprehensiveness but, really, that’s a profound emphasis in our program.”

According to Prag, many people drawn to the program consider themselves ethical vegetarians.

But ecological and health reasons are also driving the growing interest as society shifts towards plant-based diets and nutrition-centered culinary arts.

“We now see that a plant-based diet is scientifically better for us,” he said. “It feeds the healthy bacteria in our microbiome, which is the seed of our immunity. It reduces our chance of heart disease, obesity, diabetes.”

The Institute of Culinary Education’s Natural Gourmet Center is a partnership with the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York, the country’s first licensed and accredited plant-based, health-supportive and nutrition-focused culinary school. Its graduates include ABC’s “The Chew” co-host Daphne Oz, James Beard Award-winning chef and “Afro-Vegan” author Bryant Terry, and Bethenny Frankel of Skinnygirl fame, as well as Tal Ronnen, the chef-owner of Crossroads Kitchen and author of the best-selling book “The Conscious Cook.”

Tuition for the Health-Supportive Culinary Arts program is $26,500 for the first group of students and increases to $28,500 for all subsequent classes. The campus is at 521 E. Green St., Pasadena. For more information, call (888) 718-2433 or visit www.ice.edu/losangeles.

Los Angeles Daily News reporter Sandra Barrera has been writing about entertainment and lifestyle topics since 1998. Before joining the Daily News in 2000, she was a reporter for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario where she helped launch the now-defunct entertainment magazine 72HOURS as its music writer. Her reporting career at the Daily News has included fashion coverage from the red carpet at Hollywood's biggest awards shows, home and garden trends with a particular focus on earth-friendly alternatives and a wide range of events, from theater to the latest happenings at Six Flags Magic Mountain.